For LUAR’s FW23 collection, Raul Lopez explores Calle Pero Elegante, translating to mean “street elegance” in Spanish. He remembers being a kid in Williamsburg, sitting on a park bench watching from a conservative distance as the laws of the land were laid down; not by traditional authority figures, but those mafiosas who ran the neighborhood. Lopez was particularly taken by the women in these situations, they commanded a different kind of respect than men, from men. The power they held was less about brute force and more so a caustic display of the astuteness they had cultivated, moving fluidly, sultrily, from one situation to the next, carving out distinction with their two-inch, french-tipped nails. They understood detail down to the rings on their pinkies and flirted with pain while instilling fear in the hearts of those that would never know them, becoming mythic. For Lopez, these women and the company they kept exemplify street elegance – they remain the prototype.

Take a look at the collection below: